Cardfight!! Vanguard: Divinez Deluxe Kesshou-hen

Cardfight Vanguard was previously renown as THE card game anime all about nice character interactions and "real feel" of characters playing at a local to tournament level. Unfortunately the D series Deluxe arcs are not that. And this one in particular cause theres no fantastical cult subplot this time, it wants to be a tournament arc so bad. But it is way WAY below the standard. And unfortunately unlike what the fandom usually says, the change in episode count per season can't really defend against recycled plot points, flanderization, and barebones storytelling, being beat out by anime of similar episode count within the same season. What wasthe point of Deluxe? Well first of all, it was for Akina to discover what Vanguard means to him. Totally not a a question thats been asked to other major characters in this era before. So Akina has his answer already, and has his little forced ship with the barely written but highly popular Inabe Nao, and so we know hes guaranteed for the finals. Ok so what then, this is a tournament right? What about the other combatants. Surely theres some draw. I mean we knew μ's would be winning the Love Live in season 2, so the show has to be carried by the storytelling to the top, that's what DivineZ Deluxe would do right? Nope. The new character is just kind of boring despite being the new "super secret strong cardfighter" overtaking Kagetsu, and the returning cast? Regressed for forced drama and "comedy" because what is character growth and moving characters forward? Mirei being regressed about her brother for boring ass Michiru rivalry instead of idk, strengthening any character relationship. And finally Megumi once again is going to job because Kinema Citrus has nothing else for her in all 9 seasons of this show thus far. There is neither an engaging story to follow because our mc has his answer already, nor entertaining fluff from your favorite side characters which is a shame cause THAT WAS WHAT STOOD OUT ABOUT DIVINEZ WHEN IT STARTED AS THE FIRST SEQUEL ANIME SINCE VANGUARD G!!! The quality drop from DivineZ season 1 to now is INSANE. I'd rather watch Battle Spirits Burning Soul, that show is bad for being all fights and not much else in terms of character writing or plot, but at least it knows what its doing and can sell me on conflict and cards. The only real winners are the two Lyrical girls Yuna and Makoto. Yes, when your best episodes are the one outside of the tourney with the nation of cards Bushiroad historically neglects even though they are big on selling to bishoujo fans. The fact this was the only card game anime airing that season as Yugioh stopped airing, it just feels like kind of a depressing time for card game anime. Sadly this isn't Akina's last story, how the hell are they gonna keep him around for another season when they havent done much at all with him since season 1 of DivineZ.